2 SECTION TITLE NEWSPAPER TITLE XX MONTH 2018

Plastic surgeon Anthony Barabas discuss-es the latest trends in cosmetic surgery for 2018.

The buzzword at the beginning of 2018 is ‘natural’ — as in look natural. Breast aug-mentation requests are generally for smaller breast implants, with the average implant size reducing from around 500cc to between 300-400cc in my clinics. More women are asking for implants to be placed under the muscles (dual-plane) to disguise the upper edge of the implant, and there’s even an increasing trend towards teardrop shaped ‘anatomical’ im-plants, although demand for these remains much less than for round implants.

LESS IS MOREBreast reduction surgery can be life-chang-ing and liberating; life-changing by reducing back, neck and shoulder pain, and liberating women to move more freely, perform sport and wear clothes that fit. However, older re-duction techniques, leaving anchor-shaped scars, focus more on reducing the volume than on the final shape of the breast. Having spent time training in Australia, South Africa and Canada, I’m now a firm believer in verti-cal scar breast reduction techniques. Not only do these give you much less scarring, but also give a much more pleasing natural appear-ance to the final shape of your breasts.

In upper eyelid surgery there’s been a shift away from fat removal which often gave a sunken appearance to the eye. Instead, fat can be sculpted and repositioned when tightening the eyelids by removing excess skin. In con-trast, most of my lower eyelid treatments re-main non-surgical, using fillers to reduce the look of tired eyes. However, Botox to the fore-head, frown lines and sides of the eyes (crows feet) remains my most popular non-surgical treatment, followed by laser removal of moles and facial thread veins.

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Cosmetic surgery has been given a facelift

Breast reduction surgery can be life-changing and liberating; life-changing by reducing back, neck and shoulder pain, and liberating women to move more freely, perform sport and wear clothes that fit

Anthony Barabas, Cambridgeshire based Plastic Surgeon, runs clinics in Cambridge, Peterborough, Huntingdon and Boston

IN GOOD SHAPEBody contouring procedures are possi-bly the exception to the ‘less is more’ trend. Abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) is now fre-quently combined with liposuction to the flanks and other areas. I prefer laser liposuc-tion as it tightens the tissues and skin in ad-dition to fat removal. In fact, the increasingly popular ‘Brazilian’ tummy tuck puts an em-phasis on recontouring the whole abdomen through liposuction before then removing excess tissue and skin tightening. ‘Mommy makeover’ is the term used when abdomi-noplasty is combined with breast surgery (augmentation or reduction) reducing the overall cost and length of time needed to recover.

MEN SEEK SURGERYI also expect to see a continued increase in men requesting cosmetic surgery in 2018. Men increasingly approach me for facial re-juvenating procedures, in particular eyelid surgery and pinning back the ears (pinna-plasty). Treatment of ‘man boobs’ (gynae-comastia) is now commonplace and is no longer a taboo subject. Similarly, labiaplasty is now discussed more openly among female patients, often sharing the functional and, for some, the aesthetic improvements online, such as on the RealSelf website. In fact, a major factor increasing demand for cosmetic surgery over recent years is how easily the in-ternet allows people to search and read up on treatments they’re embarrassed to discuss in open conversation. Websites, chat rooms and even the ability to email surgeons directly from their homepage have broken down these barriers, and made cosmetic surgery available to many, not just the few.

Before and after ear pin back procedure

A major factor increasing demand for cosmetic surgery over recent years is how easily the internet allows people to search and read up on treatments they’re embarrassed to discuss in open conversation

Before and after upper eyelift procedure

Before and after laser mole removal